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Forty participants (20 male) had 3-minute conversations with trained male and female communication partners in a repeated-measures, within-subject design. Eighty 3-minute conversations were transcribed and coded for dependent clauses, fillers, tag questions, intensive adverbs, negations, hedges, personal pronouns, self-references, justifiers, and interruptions. Results suggest no significant changes in language based on speaker gender. However, when speaking with a female, participants interrupted more and used more dependent clauses than when speaking with a male. There was no significant interaction to suggest that the language differences based on communication partner was specific to one gender group. These results are discussed in context of previous research, communication accommodation theory, and general process model for gendered language.

OBJECTIVE Posttraumatic hydrocephalus (PTH) is a frequent sequela of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and complication of related cranial surgery. The roles of PTH and the timing of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt placement in TBI outcome have not been well described. The goal of this study was to assess the impact of hydrocephalus and timing of ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt placement on outcome during inpatient rehabilitation after TBI. METHODS In this cohort study, all TBI patients admitted to Craig Hospital between 2009 and 2013 were evaluated for PTH, defined as ventriculomegaly, and hydrocephalus symptoms, delayed or deteriorating recovery, or elevated opening pressure on lumbar puncture. Extent of ventriculomegaly was quantified by the Evans index from CT scans. Outcome measures were emergence from and duration of posttraumatic amnesia (PTA) and functional status as assessed by means of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). Findings in this group were compared to findings in a group of TBI patients without PTH (controls) who were admitted for inpatient rehabilitation during the same study period and met specific criteria for inclusion. RESULTS A total of 701 patients were admitted with TBI during the study period. Of these patients, 59 (8%) were diagnosed with PTH and were included in this study as the PTH group, and 204 who were admitted for rehabilitation and met the criteria for inclusion as controls constituted the comparison group (no-PTH group). PTH was associated with initial postinjury failure to follow commands, midline shift or cistern compression, subcortical contusion, and craniotomy or craniectomy. In multivariable analyses, independent predictors of longer PTA duration and lower FIM score at rehabilitation discharge were PTH, emergency department Glasgow Coma Scale motor score < 6, and longer time from injury to rehabilitation admission. PTH accounted for a 51-day increase in PTA duration and a 29-point reduction in discharge FIM score. In 40% of PTH patients with preshunt CT brain imaging analyzed, ventriculomegaly (Evans index > 0.3) was observed 3 or more days before VP shunt placement (median 10 days, range 3-102 days). Among PTH patients who received a VP shunt, earlier placement was associated with better outcome by all measures assessed and independently predicted better FIM total score and shorter PTA duration. CONCLUSIONS Posttraumatic hydrocephalus predicts worse outcome during inpatient rehabilitation, with poorer functional outcomes and longer duration of PTA. In shunt-treated PTH patients, earlier CSF shunting predicted improved recovery. These results suggest that clinical vigilance for PTH onset and additional studies on timing of CSF diversion are warranted.

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli or Vibrio cholerae 569B (Inaba) grown in the presence of the antibiotic lincomycin, an inhibitor of protein synthesis, produced elevated levels of heat-labile enterotoxin or choleragen, respectively, as assayed by both vascular permeability factor and capacity to elicit fluid accumulation in rabbit ileal loops. This induction of enterotoxin did not reflect either a coupling of lincomycin resistance with increased enterotoxigenicity or an effect of lincomycin on cellular release of enterotoxin, since spontaneously isolated lincomycin-resistant mutants ofboth E. coli and V. cholerae still required lincomycin for induction, and large increases in E. coli permeability factor activity were found intracellularly as well as extracellularly. After the period of exponential growth, E. coli became refractory to induction by lincomycin, although most of the induced enterotoxin activity appeared only after this period. No increase in copy number of the enterotoxin plasmid in E. coli 711 (P307) was found in induced cells by analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid reassociation kinetics. These and other data suggest that synthesis of enterotoxin, or at least its accumulation, is normally limited by cellular factors whose synthesis is preferentially inhibited by lincomycin. A possible connection between this phenomenon and lincomycinassociated diarrhea is considered.

The stressful quality of an experience, as perceived by rats, is believed to be largely represented by the magnitude of a hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response. The hippocampus may be especially important for assessing the stressfulness of psychological stressors such as novel experience. If such is the case then experience-dependent immediate-early gene expression levels within the hippocampus may parallel relative levels of HPA axis activity. We examined this prospect in rats that were placed in four different novel environments (empty housing tub, circular arena, elevated pedestal or restraint tube). Restraint and pedestal produced the largest magnitude of increased ACTH and corticosterone secretion, arena an intermediate level (Experiment 2) and tub the least magnitude of increase. We saw a very similar experience-dependent pattern of relative Fos protein, c-fos mRNA and zif268 mRNA expression in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. However, in hippocampus (and select regions of cortex), immediate-early gene expression was associated with the exploratory potential of the novel experience rather than level of HPA axis activity; pedestal and arena elicited the greatest immediate-early gene expression, tub an intermediate level and restraint the least amount of expression. We conclude that the stressfulness of psychological stressors is not represented by the amount of immediate-early gene induction elicited in hippocampus and cortex, nor does there appear to be a general enhancing or depressive influence of acute stress on immediate-early gene induction in those brain regions.